Connecticut western news., 1887-01-12
FATAL RAILROAD DISASTERS.
Nineteen Persons Killed in Col lision on the Baltimore and Ohio.

Ohio.
 TrFF1N, Ohio, Jan. 4.-The fast train on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, which left New York for Chicago with five coaches and four sleepers, all well filled with passengers, crushed into an eastern-bound freight seven miles east of this city about four o'clock this morning. The fast train was about fifty sixty miles an hour, passing Republic, small station, like flash. They rushed along to the curve one mile west of that town, when sud- denly the engineer saw the freight train under full headway within 100 yards of him. He at once applied the brakes and reversed his lever, but it did no good and the next instant the crash came, telescopnS the coaches and piling them upon each other.
 To add consternation to the horrible scene fire broke out in the smoking car and soon spread to the other cars. Many were killed outright while others, wedged in among the broken cars, were slowly consumed by the flames. The screams of the wounded and dy- ing were heartrending, but no assistance could be given until & farmer, awakened by the crash, came and, with other neighbors, worked like heroes to save the perishing.
 At this writing nineteen dead bodies have been recovered, and they lie burned and dis figured in the snow beside the track. Help was sent from Republic and this city as soon as the news was received. It is fearful sight and recalls the Ashtabula horror of the
 winter af 1877. The engineers and tiremen of
 both trains and the express agent on the pas senger train were killed, and number of pas sengers in the forward car were inj ured. The collision occurred at Republic, village few miles from Tiffin, Ohio. The accident IS at- tributed by the officers here to misunder- standing of orders for the regulation of one or other of the trains.
 INCIDENTS OF THE DISASTER.
 In the smoker were 12 or 5passengers, some of them immigrants, of whom only two escaped
 o1,, ~E 1.,srh
 was so crushed and burned that he cannot live. Baggagemaster ". F. Gates of Newark, suffers from several cuts in his left leg, and splintex or rod run through his right foot.
 c. P. Bradley, of Washington, D. C., was
 found hanging out of window of the smoker, but his legs wefe held fast and he could not be extricated. In that position he remained until burned to death, and his charred remains dropped to the ground, a black and shapeless mass. He was conscious for some time, and gave his name and address to bystanders, to
 whom he said that he was an officer of the
 Knights of Labor. He gave his watch and such other articles as he could get from his pockets to Engineer Fletcher, of the freight. William Postlethwaite, his wife and their five children left the f former home in Belton, West
 Va. and took passage Oil the ill-stared train, in. tending to settle in Chillicothe, Mo- The head of the family carried on his person the entire fam- fly wealth, amounting to about $1 800 in money, drafts and notes. He and the two older sons, aged IS and H. were imprisoned in the wreck and burned alive, while the mother, with two babes in her arms and 4-year- old boy at her side, escaped, she cannot tell how, and after wandering about in tho snow craZed with the horrors of the situation, she finally strayed to farmhouse. where she saw 8 light and was kindly cared for by the inmates, As she wept and walled over her overwhelming loss of all the support she had in the worlb,
 husband and two sons cremated in her sight, and all the money swallowed in the inexorable
 flame, it was pitiful to hear the prattling four
 year-old tfy to comfort her, Don't cry.
 mamma" he said, 'tTll get papa!'
 The express engineer, on seeing the collision
 inevitable, blew the whistle for down breaks,
 reversed his engine, jumped through the cab
 window, taking the sash with him, and alighted i'll 8 huge snow drift, escaping serious
 injuries. The fireman, William Frederick
 was throwing coal intu the furnace Hearing
 the engineers shout to jump he raised up. but
 hesitated as if to calculate his safer course, and the next instant he was buried ill the awful wreck. When discovered he was pinned be- tween two beanls, where he died horrible death, lingering three hours in excruciating agony.
 The freight train, it is said. had received orders to side track at the Scipio siding to all low tho east-botlnd express to pass. After the passenger train had gone the conductor, being without special orders, exercised his own judg- ment and determined that inasnuch as he had half an hour to make the switch at Republic, a little less than five miles distant, before the arrival of the fast express from the East due at that point at } o'clock, he pulled out The night was bitter cold, and much difficulty was experienced in keeping up steam
 in the engine. Finally at point half a mile
 west of Republic the train came to standstill, being unable to move further. Just here was made the horrible mistake which resulted in the loss of so many lives and the destruction of thousands of dollars worth of property. AL though the conductor must have known that he was encroaching dangerously near the time of the express, he did not send ont the signal until after his train had came to standstil1 and he found it impossible to move further. He then started forward with the lantern him. | self. At this point there is a sharp curve, and l Conductor Fletcher had not proceeded more l than the length of 20 cars when he saw the | headlight of the approaching express rounding | the curve not more than 40 rods distant, I stricken with the knowledge that fright | fll accident could not be averted, he
 flashed his light in the face of the engineer, | Lem Eastman. The latter at the same mo.
 ment saw the light of the freight engine and, | giving wild sbriek of the whistle for brakes, | he reversed his engine and jumped for his | life crashing through the window of the cab,
 earrying glass and sash with him, and alight- | cd in heavy snowdfift. He escaped serious | injury, his hurts being confined to slight | wound upon the knee. As he realized the | danger he called to his fireman, William Fred-
 ericks, to save himself. The latter was en- | gagged in stoking the fire and raised up mo-
 ment and hesitated to glance forward as if to | estimate the danger. This was fatal, as at l that instant the cfash came ntld poor Freder- 1 icks was pinned and crushed by the mass of the wreck. It is believed that at least 20 lives | were lost.